Hello all and welcome to the sixth issue of the Conquer Club Newsletter!

Well it's hard to believe that the CC News Team has now churned out 6 editions, it seems only yesterday that we published our very first. I must give a big thanks to the community for supporting this venture and to the CC News Team who make this newsletter happen every fortnight.

We have had a few things that have been shaken up over the last fortnight, with the addition of our new admins have come some very positive changes to the public forum. Flame Wars is gone never to be seen again, which seems to have been a very positive step towards a brighter future here at Conquer Club. We also saw the admins come up with a clever April Fool's Joke by drenching the site in bright pink and purple, dice with hearts, bunny rabbits and the ever shocking change of the name to Cutesy Club.

These last two weeks have been pretty historic in one way and another. Just a few examples could include these….G20 came and went, the Maersk Alabama was hijacked by Somali pirates in the Indian Ocean which has ended badly for the pirates, riots continue in Thailand, the toll from the terrible Italian earthquake continues to rise and conquer club shut up shop on the flame wars once and for all.

This last item certainly rattled a few cages. Now as many of you know, I felt the way it was done was not the best way, it showed a certain lack of understanding and awareness regarding the customers, paying and non-paying, within the community and I truly think this attitude will ultimately cost the admin, only time will tell. The side effects of the closure have been a rash of threads about it in GD. Now if the past performance of the admin on cc is anything to go by, one can pretty much expect they will sit on their hands in the main hoping that it will all die down and finally go away. They will most probably be right.

I see the sometimes conq. Herpes has been in the news again. This time was about the number of wins he has enjoyed on the ‘City Mogul’ map. Now I have never played this map, so I shall not pass comment on the relative complexity of it, but anyone who wins 100 games on a map without losing does warrant a certain amount of respect. Having said this, it may be a moment to pause and wonder if this is really so….MajorRT opened proceedings mentioning this fact. Naturally our favourite anti hero JR stepped straight in. The animosity between JR and Herpes is almost gaining legendary status so this was going to prove interesting. Without further ado, we saw post after post from JR showing records of various games. I was confused at this point, was JR showing how well these games were won? Then all became apparent with a note from him in one past saying “we will need to move this thread to cheating/abuse”. An erstwhile sometimes team mate sometimes oppo of mine prismsaber pointed out that while freestyle is just a shady game style in general there was little to accomplish by moving the thread to C&A. This seemed to galvanise JR into more postings of various games. Some members then started posting in defence of Herpes, others posted supporting JRs stand. Among them that legend of map making ‘qwert’. The whole thread descended into a bun fight pretty rapidly with the usual suspects taking positions on both sides. I noticed some quoting map rank while obviously still not fully understanding how it works, but that’s for another day. In the end the thread was locked PDQ by lancehoch. Now I really don’t care whether Herpes has found a loophole, it seems this is the way forwards for many on cc. Whether it will prove beneficial or otherwise, as with the deletion of the FW forum, only time will tell. One of the interesting aspects was this final locking of the thread, I have noticed other threads seem to be getting locked and postings are getting deleted more and more. A side effect of the FW forum being closed perhaps?

During the last two weeks I noticed a re-appearance of an old forum regular ‘jiminski’. There was a time when jim could be relied upon to be pretty active in the forums. Some months ago he decided to take time out. Postings from him after this point were pretty sporadic until recently. I wondered if this was the start of more regular appearances, but it seems not. With an attitude and style Greta Garbo would have been proud of; our jim has been pretty active in posting a simple message on many of his old authored threads. The message has simply said [please delete this thread]. Now whatever could have brought this on? Maybe if an interview was now attempted with jim and the first question started with “I wonder” jim would quickly respond with “why wonder?” and promptly leave! Just so long as we don’t hear word of jim walking around dressed casually in women’s clothes and wearing large sunglasses I think things should be ok.

Talking of women’s clothes, this week’s quote certainly had me chortling. In one of the many threads about the demise of flame wars authored by ronc8649 (and subsequently locked) I saw this

owenshooter wrote:

jpcloet wrote:I'm sure if you googled, you'd probably find sites out there just for flaming. Why not join one of them?

those sites probably involve some degree of cross dressing... and i doubt many of the FW regulars would truly be into that as much as i am...-0

Killmanic is the member with the highest number of medals for winning a tournament. He was awarded 27 times.

Q: Talk about you...

I'm a college student studying chemical engineering. I am and have always been very into board games and card games. I am also pretty bad at answering questions that aren't given in question form.

Q: How did you find out about Conquer Club?

My roommates last year started playing and with in a week of them telling me about the site I was hooked.

Q: 67% of the games you played were tournament games. Why you decided to focus yourself on tournaments?

Really only 67%? I would have thought it would have been higher. Anyhow to answer your question its not that I decided I am mainly going to play tournaments its that I enjoy playing them since there is a bigger goal then just winning the game, since in some it is possible to win the tournament without ever even having to win a game. I tend to join tournaments that sound interesting, offer free premium, or are 1v1 (I can't get enough of 1v1).

Q: You already organized and succesfully completed 2 tournaments and one still running. Do you have any projects for future?

Not sure perhaps in the summer, but not likely before it.

Q: In your opinion is more difficult organizing a successful tournament or taking the victory in one of them?

Running one. Winning one just requires winning a few games while running one requires you to keep constant tabs on the games going on, and make lots of games.

Q: What do you consider the best tournament you've played?

I have no clue, there are so many I can pick from. In terms of enjoyment it was likely either AoR Officer's Magic Club Tournament which was my first tournament win and I was so estatic to have won, or The Rescue of Optimus Prime where I kept being on the brink of elimination and fighting my way back.

Q: What is your favorite map ? Why?

Waterloo. Its such a well made map, there are so many different aspects to it, and because of that its great. Overall the harder the better as there is more to learn.

Q: Who is your favorite tournament organizer? Why?

If we are talking solely based on the running of the tournaments I would have to say amazzony, as I cant get enough of the awesome graphics she uses in her tournaments.

Q: Do you have some good advice for other players?

Play in tournaments they are a lot of fun. Also once you have played in some try organizing a small one. If that goes well and you like it try making a bigger one.

EDITOR'S NOTEIf you have some interesting ideas or suggestions about, please contact me with a PM.Thank you Thenobodies80

Hello again, my fellow conquerors. More slow time in the Foundry — not a single map was quenched since the last issue! We're down to the bare bones once again …

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Recently Quenched & Beta Maps

Foundry News & Announcements

Foundry Stamp Competition

Departures/Vacations

Author's Note

Recently Quenched & Beta MapsAnother quiet fortnight on the quenching side of things, let's cross or fingers and hope that we have some beautiful maps to display in the next issue. Meanwhile if you would like a sneek peek at some up and coming maps, why not visit the Map Foundry

Foundry News & AnnouncementsFoundry Stamp CompetitionIt's time once again for the Foundry to change its stamps, and we're relying on the members for them this time! The deadline is one week from today — April 19th. We'd love your entries, and you can head over there by clicking the subtopic header titled "Foundry Stamp Comp."Departures/VacationsIf you didn't know, qwert, maker of your favorite WWII maps and Europe 1914, as well as the new Peloponnesian War map, is leaving the Foundry in exasperation of the long process. We all know he'll be missed, as it seems there's no persuading him to remain and keep pumping out great maps for CC.In similar news, cairnswk, whose 22 maps I won't even begin to name, has vacationed his maps for the time being. My sources (yeah, right!) tell me he's just busy and will return to them, but let's all cross our fingers that he can return as soon as possible and add to that huge number of quenched maps that he's already got.

AUTHOR'S NOTEWe've been down to the minimum of what to write on for the past couple weeks … got any ideas? suggestions? Want to write a piece? Just shoot me a PM by directly clicking my signature in the line below. Thanks,.44

This week's articles are written by Cena-Rules who is co-leader of the clan called Mythology. His focus will be around his experiences in managing his clan through the Clan League, and will also talk about his clan as well.

Hello Readers,

I am going to discuss the trials that anyone trying to set up a weeks worth of games for the Clan League faces. In the Clan League, (which has 18 play weeks over 24 scheduled weeks) you have to set up 10 games for the clan if you are the home team or join a set of 10 if you are the away team. It sounds simple and I thought it would be so I decided to step up to the plate. Boy, was I wrong. First, the home weeks. Each time we are at home, I go through the previous 2 or 3 weeks and see if there are any regular teams that are winning on a variety of maps. Unfortunately, since we've only been doing this type of competition for a short time, our members have not established themselves as teams on specific maps. To the degree that I can say they are winning regularly. Next, I look for players that haven’t been playing regularly and I try to fit them in if possible. Then I will look at people that haven’t played together and see if I think they can do well. This normally consists of looking at their favourite maps etc. I then I post the list of teams in the forum and hope the games get sent to me on time. Finally, I check that the games are legal and they get sent off to the opposing clan, and posted in the weekly thread for the organizer to track results.

If we are away from home, it is even tougher. I receive the games from the opposition and look at the maps and settings. I then have a look at some of my clan’s records on these maps and cry when I realize just how well trained the opposition are on them. I will then try to match up teams to be challenging and try to surprise the other clan by not putting out expected teams. I then send the lineup to peanutsdad (the primary leader of Mythology) and he probably has a heart attack at some of the match ups, but recovers and sends back to me any ideas he has. I finally post the games in the forum and pray to the dice and drop gods.

jpcloet: Thank you cena-rules for sharing your experience. The league (and clan wars for that matter) can be quite a bit of work, and a number of players definitely have a better appreciation of what the leaders do. I have to also thank all the league contacts for the fantastic work they have done so far to make this league a big success and how smoothly it has run. The League will be the first of its kind to complete, and I'm glad the clans have come together to make some CC history.

Mythology is an extremely friendly clan and we see ourselves as one big family. We always welcome new additions and have some of the nicest people around. Formed in October 2007, by myself, it hasn’t been the easiest of journeys to get us to where we are today. Time restrictions meant I had to give up the leadership. I handed it over to Unit_2 who had a nice time as leader but also eventually found himself swamped under with the Japan map he was creating. Luckily, Peanutsdad emerged from the ashes as Mythology's new leader in January 2008. He has stuck with keeping the clan informed on what is going on and has always taken the individuals views on board before making a decision. Since then, the clan has done nothing but improve and we all hope to continue this trend in order to become one of the forces of CC. Well we can all dream can't we? We are one of the member clans of the CLA (Clan Leader's Association), which was talked about in the last issue. Peanutsdad and myself are the representatives of the clan, talking on any views our members may have and putting it out there. Within the clan we are like a little family. There is much banter and a very friendly atmosphere. We have in clan games and are more than happy to share our lives with each other. We are always on the lookout for clan wars, and are always open to challenges from the general public. So if you think you have the stuff, bring it on. As well as this we are always on the lookout for new members so feel free to apply.

That is all from me this week guys and I hope to be writing for you again. Thanks a million for reading

cena-rules

jpcloet: All clans face challenges with members and leaders over time for a variety of reasons. Many of the oldest clans on the site have gone though different stages, and those that can manage through them, emerge later even stronger. Mythology is definitely one of those clans.

InsomniaRed seems to have been unable to bring us this weeks Community Opinion, this section will be back next issue with the topic "Flame Wars Gone for Good".

The Strategy Guide Ad-Hoc Group

Hi folks, I’m Nagerous! You may have seen me in the past trolling the forums and providing nonsensical comments sometimes irrelevant to the thread the statement is made in. However, I am not here today to talk jibberish but instead I am going to be discussing one important element of the Conquer Club community that not everybody knows about, and that is the Strategy Ad-Hoc Group. Currently, the Strategy Ad-Hoc Group is working on producing detailed strategy guides for every map and setting as well as guides on spoils and reinforcements. As everyone knows, there are a huge amount of maps now available for live play and therefore the job that the strategy group have given themselves is enormous. However thanks to the good work and leadership from Gilligan, gimiland The Fuzzy Pengui as well as a number of active members the list of maps is slowly being worked through. Guides have already been completed on a number of maps such as Arctic and the Caribbean Islands and there are many others that have been written and are near to being finalised. However, the Strategy Ad-Hoc Group needs your help! As mentioned earlier the task that the team are setting themselves is huge, but the more people we have helping, the quicker the guides can be churned out. More users giving more feedback would also be welcomed. If the concept of writing guides for your favourite map has attracted you, please feel welcome to join the group either by following this link --> The Strategy Guides Ad-Hoc Group and saying you want to join there, or by dropping The Fuzzy Pengui, gimil or Gilligan a PM. With your help, you can make Conquer Club a better place, by writing detailed guides to help new or inexperienced players, or if writing is not your thing, just joining the group to give those writing guides some feedback. There is also the possibility of incentives in the form of free months of premium memberships for individuals who work especially hard with the group over a long period of time, provided generously by gimil. So if you are motivated by greed or just want to help/better the community, please apply. Thank-you.

A: My intrest in map making on CC actually does not stem from a like for cartography but for an interest and enjoyment I have with art and design. I grew up doing a lot of art from painting & drawing to crafting & modelling. I also started to learn photoshop just before I joined CC. When I did finally join here the first place that caught my eye was the map foundry. I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to learn and refine my photoshop skills!

Q: Which of your quenched maps is your favourite?

A: All my maps are my favourite in their own way. However if I had to pick one it would probably be Feudal War. It is by far my most popular map here on CC and it was (and in many ways still is) unique for its time.

Q: Tell us what it is like as a day in the life of a Cartographer?

A: Its easy really, me and oaktown sit back drinking some fine scotch while reading cartography weekly. On a really good day andy comes out his office and shares his bananas! (although that isn't very often )

Q: Do you enjoy contributing to the site the way you do?

A: I have always enjoyed what I do and I always do the best I can. There are in all honesty unfavourable aspects to the CA job but that comes with the territoriy. I have never let it get in the way of my enjoyment (too much).

Q: How did you hear about ConquerClub.com?

A: Like pretty much everyone else on CC I found the site when searching for online risk on google. The game had always looked intresting to me but growing up I never had anyone to play risk with . My friends were intrested in different things from me.

Q: How long were you a regular member before being asked to join Team CC?

A: Approximetly 9 months. More of that time was spent in the foundry before I (and oaktown) were approached by andy and coleman over the new year of 2008 and offered us the positions.

Q: When you became a Cartographer, who was already on the Cartography team?

A: The cartography team at the time I joined (along with oaktown) was only andy and coleman. Coleman is no longer around now for unfortunate personal reasons but he will always have a place in my CC heart and will always receive a warm welcome whenever he comes back. he was a true foundry role model and a good friend.

Q: Other than your own maps, which map has been your favourite to see progress through the foundry?

A: I always like to watch new map makers who make a good impression and good understanding of the foundry system. It is just nice to see a new map maker get it right on their first go. The NYC map by snapdoodle and benny was one of the best maps I ever watched developed, they just made their map properly and better than alot of the regulars did! A more recent example is the map currently waiting to be quenched is the Oceania by thenobodies80 and pikkio.

Q: Do you ever feel like throwing up your arms (or kilt ) and leaving CC? And if so, what keeps you?

A: I did come very close at the end of last year to quitting my position at CC. I had a serious lack of internet access and struggled to get online to do anything. However since christmas I have managed to have substained access. So I am still here!

Q: Knowing everything you know now, would you still choose to become a mod today if you were offered a position?

A: The foundry today is a very differnt place than it was before I joined teamCC. I am an old school mapper trying to moderate a new school of mappers. It is different but I wouldn't say in a bad way. So yes knowing what I know now I would probably still accept an offer to become mod if it was given to me today.

Q: What do you envision for 2009 in Conquer Club?

A: There is loads going on for me personally and CC as a whole. The future to me looks cloudy. But one thing I can see if that 2009 is gonig to be a different and exciting year for CC with lots of change!

Q: Could you briefly explain what is your main strength in map creating?

A: For me a personal strengh has been team working. I always create a better map when I work in cooperation with someone. Feudal War, New Worlds, Conquer 4 etc etc. Team working always brings out a better side in me.

Q: Do you have anything special in the works that will wow us all?

A: I am currently (slowly) working on a sequel to Feudal War called Feudal Epic. It will be an 8 player version of the Feudal War gameplay. I am hoping that this map will be as successful as the last one.

Q: What is your perspective on the relative importance between "gameplay" and "graphical beauty"?

A: Both are equally important in there own way. The most beautiful map in the world will be wasted if its gameplay sucks. It will just sit at the bottom on the CC map pile. While a map that may have very good gameplay wont be taken seriously if a map maker cannot produce good quality graphics.

Q: If you had to choose your closest friend here on CC, who would that be?

A: Probably oaktown, ever since our paths crossed joining the CA team we have worked together as a team and trucked through thick and thin together. Other people worthy of a mention are coleman who was a great CA role model and a very good friend as well, ruben cassar who is one of the nicest people I have ever met, andydufresne who always has words of wisdom when they are most needed, DiM who is no longer around but taught me alot about real life, the life could be endless but those are defintley the best of the best.

Q: Has anyone ever made you go "wow" at anything they did on CC?

A: Once upon a time mibi released a map called trojan wars. It was the most beautifully detailed map I had ever seen on CC. It still to this day makes me drool everytime I see it.

Q: What is your favourite playing colour? Why?

A: Blue? Everything looks better in blue!

Q: Thankyou for your time Gimil

A: No problem, it was a pleasure

Scores at the end of Week 2

A few people have dropped out, we now have 11 contestants with 2 distinct leaders

If you have a story you think the Conquer Club Community would find interesting, you can submit your articles to samuelc812. If the CC News Team enjoy it than you may just see your article published in the Newsletter!

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